Approaching Deans, Chairs, and Faculty

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Deans, Chairs, and faculty have different desires, priorities and agendas. Here are a few tips in approaching these groups in a constructive manner.

Deans

Interacting with the Dean of your college can be intimidating since they are your "bosses boss." Deans have broad latitude in distributing resources to specific programs and have the ultimate say in most situations. Fortunately, Deans are extremely busy and generally not up for micromanaging or inflicting retribution on specific faculty. Crossing a Dean, like a Chair, carries its own costs. Fortunately, FCAT are in the position of bringing resources to the college rather than asking for resources (like everyone else). Just be friendly and action oriented. Deans like faculty who deliver on promises and make her/his college look good. Having a good relationship with and knowing your Dean can be very advantageous.

Deans, like Chairs, are sandwiched between their Chairs and the Provost and President. Often policies come from on-high and the Deans are the ones who have to make it happen - more than Chairs - they are the ones who have to wield the axe whether they like it or not. They also need to protect their own colleges and compete for resources with other colleges. Therefore, Deans can be very territorial and protective of their own power and prerogatives. It is difficult and demanding job and you may find it difficult to get their time and attention, but it also means they are unlikely to interfere with your assignment. However, Deans have an agenda and might want FCAT to help execute it. The goal is to find the place where you can make the Dean's agenda align with your FCAT mission.

Keep in mind Deans, like Chairs, can't really MAKE faculty do anything. Deans are (luckily) loath to make ultimatums or demands on departments or faculty because it is largely ineffective and save her/his limited coercive power for serious situations.

When setting up your meeting, be prepared. Here is a suggested format:

1. Ask the Deans goals and desires for (1) use of Canvas and (2) the FCAT program for her/his college. What does she/he want and where does he/she want the college to be in the future. Listen and take notes.
2. Outline the FCAT strategy, the metrics we use, and how you will keep her/him in the loop.
3. Ask for her/his help by (1) setting expectations that Chairs will cooperate by meeting with the FCAT, facilitating access to faculty, and holding workshops.
4. Ask for 10-15 minutes for the next college Chairs meeting where the Dean will state these expectations and you briefly introduce yourself. Hand out business cards.
5. Send monthly reports to your Dean about your accomplishments and be factual and clear about the level of cooperation you receive from specific departments. With any luck, your Dean will apply pressure and praise, which can help your mission.

Finally, if you are having "Dean issues," feel that he/she is trying to dictate or interfere with your mission, or simply getting a weird vibe, contact myself. If needed, I can bring in Cathy Cheal to handle the political end as she is at a commensurate administrative level.

Chairs

Being a Department Chair is a difficult and thankless job. Chairs are squeezed between demanding faculty and Deans and other administrators with their own agendas. Faculty can't really be forced to do anything and Deans and other administrators hold the power of the purse string and the ability to hire. Chairs lead and gain compliance through the force of their personalities, the ability to work with faculty, and deliver resources.

Every chair is different and has different concerns. Chairs need to be able to find faculty to staff sections, keep their SFR (student-to-faculty ration) up, which means more students per faculty member, and create a schedule that provides enough sections of the right type to meet student needs. Basically, to get students through the program and graduated. These are all metrics that chairs are held to and must address while not aggravating faculty. Chairs need to be able to compete for resources with other programs in their college.

There are three different situations that you will find when going into different departments. Each demands a different approach.

1. Tech Savvy: these are programs that already use the LMS and offer a lot of online and/or hybrid courses.
2. Transitioning: programs that offer some online or hybrid options and many faculty use the LMS.
3. Luddite: these are programs that offer few if any online or hybrid options and faculty are resistant to the use of technology for a variety of reasons.

Tech Savvy

Chairs in these departments do not need to be sold on the use of Canvas or educated in integrating different modes into their schedules. For these chairs, discuss where they are at and where they would like to be going. Often this might be targeting a few lagging faculty or working on special projects such as larger multi-section courses or MOCs or using Canvas for administrative duties such as committees special initiatives.

Transitioning

These departments offer the ripest environment for expansion. Chairs in these programs might be leaders trying to pull their faculty along, ambivalent about the use of technology, or uninterested to slightly hostile but tolerate some faculty innovation. Remember that some chair positions are full time while other teach classes in addition to being chairs. It is important to see where these chairs are coming from in order to gain cooperation.  Provide these chairs the Guide for Online_Hybrid Scheduling Download Guide for Online_Hybrid Scheduling

and discuss how adding how use of Canvas by faculty in traditional classes can lower copy costs by switching to electronic handouts including syllabi, facilitate the sharing of content and instructor assessment across multi-section GE or required courses, and ease instructor student communication. Try and sell the chair on supporting a basic use expectation of a syllabus and using the gradebook for each class. Identify and contact current users and see what they need as these core early adopters will form the foundation of LMS use expansion.

Laggards

If a program is in this situation it is likely that the chair and/or a cadre of senior faculty are hostile or resistant to anything outside the traditional classroom and this suppresses use by more junior or lower ranked faculty. There might also be a disciplinary bias or structural constraints based on the subject matter. Focus on how Canvas can reduce copy costs and its use in traditional class configurations.The hard part is going to be getting access to the faculty at all, although these types of programs usually meet physically quite often. You may only get 15 minutes or so pitch the utility of Canvas for traditional classes. It may be more effective to demonstrate how Canvas might be used for committee or similar work.

Faculty

As detailed in the Deep Bench Report Download Deep Bench Report

, you may face some misdirected hostility from faculty. This can stem from anger at administration policies, the fact that money is being spent to pay for you, fear of the impact of technology of teaching, or the constant switching of learning platforms.

Do not take this personally.

I find a good strategy is "I don't care because I can't care." That is, you are not there to try and make them do anything, Canvas or other technologies are not always the best solution, and that every discipline and course has unique constraints/attributes that compel different approaches. Moreover, that any use must meet the needs, expectations, pedagogical style, and desires of faculty and students. You are there because, ideally, technology can make life better/easier and you are simply providing them with some options to think about. Use it or not, it is up to them.

However, change is not coming to higher ed, it is here now. Better that change be driven by faculty who have the expertise in their fields and know their students, than by some administrator. Canvas can be revolutionary tool to combat the charge that faculty are simply being intransigent.

Often faculty will focus on a particular method/tool that they use and want to know if Canvas can/will "do that." Dig deeper into the pedagogical rational/goal of the task to try and align it with a Canvas feature. Do not be afraid to say "I do not know, but can find out" or "Canvas wont do that, sorry, no toll can be all things to all people."

Do not let belligerent faculty eat-up workshop time and avoid engaging in debate about broader pedagogical or philosophical issues, university budgets or governance, or university strategies. You do not represent or speak for anyone or anything other than the FCAT program - you are here to help - period.

Another common trap is one faculty member who has specific needs and questions and basically wants you to spend the time in a one-on-one session dealing with her/his issues. Loop any questions or issues back to the group and if he/she persist, suggest you meet with them later. 

Tech Savvy

Effective workshop strategies might include more complex feature use or going deep on specific features and how they might be used in the context of a class. Remember, just because faculty are using Canvas, it does not mean they are using it effectively. Suggest innovative course design options.

Transitioning

A good approach might be to try and arrange a general "Why use Canvas" style workshop using the Funnel Strategy and follow-up with a more detailed "after-workshop" on specific features. Identify specific faculty who show some interest and get them set-up.

A good entry point is when faculty have a new prep or are updating content such as a new edition of textbook. The up-front work for moving a class into Canvas can be daunting, but if they have to do the work anyway, encourage them to build into the new system. 

Another option is to have faculty take a current course and transfer it over to Canvas in pieces so they can experiment with how it might look in the system.

Laggards

While the late-adopter faculty and programs have a lot of potential upside, they are also more likely to have broader or entrenched ideological issues or disciplinary bias with using technology or may be overly resistant to change. Some faculty have literally requested classrooms with chalkboards because they dislike whiteboards - the smell/feel of chalk is equated with teaching. Perhaps she/he has a favorite grading pen and likes the feel of paper or a place where they take papers and a cup of coffee to grade without interruption. Let's face it, staring at a laptop screen with your email lurking in the background is not the same thing. These types of structural/ritual associations can be challenging since, like a frayed sport coat, they are comfortable. These faculty are not stupid or ignorant (usually), they just have a blind spot in this particular area. Being a professor is part of her/his identity and change can be perceived as a n attack on the self.

Common objections include the prospect of cheating (anyone could be taking a quiz or submitting students work), that online activities degrade the teaching experience, this is the first step toward elimination of faculty in favor of some sort of automated classroom, or that someone will "steal" her/his intellectual property.

Remind faculty that the university has an explicit policy that grants full rights to the faculty who create content. Also that faculty often use other scholars textbooks or journal articles so sharing is common place.

A good strategy is to cut to specific annoyances that all faculty face such as students being unprepared for in-class sessions or features that facilitate analog activities, such as being able to download the gradebook to easily create and print out paper roll sheets (something that Peoplesoft won't do). For example:

• If students have to submit work by the start of class or complete graded tasks based on the readings, they are more likely to show up prepared.
• Peer review is easy to use and ensures that students are not submitting first drafts, which reduces grading time.
• Students will not pester faculty about grades if they can see them and always have an updated syllabus. Stress the notify users feature.
• Messaging system and submission features automatically identifies students so faculty will always know who students are and what class they are in.
• Speedgrader!
• Automated quizzes.
• Discussion boards allow for full (and easily graded) participation that provides equity and time for all students and facilitates more in class interaction.

In Conclusion

This is not rote -  our own personality and experience will drive your process. Like teaching, you will be constantly surprised in these workshop sand interactions with chairs and faculty and will learn by experience. Please share these challenges with other FCAT. Faculty behave much more like undergrads than one might think and it can be disturbing at first.

Overall, I think you will find faculty to be respectful and grateful for the help and attention, so problems should be few. But like a rare difficult student, the problem children tend to stick with you more. However, FCAT do not have to deal with overly difficult or hostile faculty, chairs, or Deans. or take abuse for university policies, that is not your job. Do not hesitate to come to me and I will deal with it as Program Coordinator